MOVIE - The Ugly Truth

40% silly, 30% cute, 30% hilarious
Released: July 24, 2009
R (1 hr. 35 min.)
Harrisburg Regal Theater with Laura
RT: 15% cag: 55%
Director: Robert Luketic
Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler

Cute but silly, lots of snickers and one tears-streaming-down-the-face scene that was worth watching the whole movie.....

Katherine Heigl is the ultra controlling producer of a Sacramento morning news show that has low, low ratings. Gerard Butler is a raunchy "womanizer" that thinks he has all the answers to get to a man's heart. Their antagonistic relationship, of course, changes into friendship and then more. Gerard Butler talks like he has a wad of food in his cheek? Does he always do this? Is this how he controls his accent?

Fun and mindless. Not as good as 29 Dresses (it could actually be any number, I can't remember and I'm pullin' at straws here) or Knocked Up. Oh well, can't have it all.

Rachel - Amy Ehrlich

The Story of Rachel Carson
Illustrated by: Wendell Minor
Silver Whistle/Harcourt 2003
32 pgs. ages 5-8 930L
Endpapers: Palest blue with white seashells

What a lovely short biography - a perfect read-aloud-in-one-sitting length. And there's lots of wonderful writing to model, even starting at the very beginning What a nice way to set up a story:
"Rachel's house was far from the ocean, hundreds of miles inland at a bend on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania. There were no seagulls there, no sharks or whales. But one day she found a fossil, a single dark spiral lodged in a rock at her feet. She brought it to show her mother, and they looked it up in a book. The fossil was a sea creture, her mother said. Millions of years ago the ocean had covered their land and left it behind."

Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962. It's an expose of all the toxics that are being put into our environment. Most environmentlists feel this book is what started the green/environmental movement. She died of cancer in 1964. She seems like an odd, thoughtful, creative person...and she loved and lived in Maine. I'd like to learn more about her.

Wendell Minor's artwork is stupendous, taking up either a full page or, in two cases, full two-page wordless spreads. They get me homesick for the coast of Maine. Delicious.

49. Serpent Gate - Michael McGarrity

Kevin Kerney #3
Audio read by George Guidall
Recorded Books
Unabridged 6 cassettes/8.5 hrs.
314 pgs.
1998
Rating: 4

Two entirely different stories wrap themselves around each other and Kevin Kerney, who has been given the rank of Deputy Chief of the State Police, is clever enough to solve them both. His old nemesis, Mexican Enrique deLeon, whom he butted heads with in the first book, has masterminded a huge art theft from the governor's office. And Kerney is back and forth between Santa Fe and Mountainair, where he has solved the murder of a police officer. During that investigation he met mentally disabled Robert Cordova, and both stories "end" during a blizzard at Serpent Gate. We know there's more to come, too, because before the book closes we get a glimpse of deLeon on his yacht plotting revenge.....and of Kerney waiting for the outcome of a trial to find out if the woman he arrested in Mountainair will be acquitted. - thus allowed to enter his personal life.

I'm so glad I went to Santa Fe last Thanksgiving, because I have foggy pictures in my brain about the setting. Now I want to go back. And this time, I want to take a closer look at Truth or Consequences and Socorro, with side trips to some of the places mentioned so far in these three great novels. Looking forward to the fourth.

Ocean's Child - Christine Ford & Trish Holland

Illustrated by David Diaz
Golden Books/Random House
2009
$15.99
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Aqua/lavender batik

This gentle bedtime, good-night story is swathed in batik. The backgrounds (from edge of the page to edge of the page) are batiked. Some of the animals are batiked. Batik is a special kind of fabric created with wax resist. It's my favorite fabric - it's beautiful.

Each two-page spread ends with a similar soft chant. For example:

Safe and snug in his leafy bed,
Baby otter is rocked to sleep.
To ocean's child we say good night.
Good night, little otter, good night.

In this way we also say good night to walrus, dolphin, whale, polar bear, puffin, sea lion, orca, albatross, seal....baby and child.

Mmmmmm. A lovely bedtime book.

Grandpappy Snippy Snappies - Lynn Plourde

Illustrated by Christopher Santoro
Harcourt, 2009
$17.99
Ages 3-6t
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Red

I usually adore Lynn Plourde's writing - rhyme, rhythm, clever wordplay and wonderful words. However, I didn't seem to get caught up into these snappin' red suspenders. So I read it a second time, and a third. And I got into the silliness - and the cleverness - and now I can't wait to read it to Ella!

Grandpappy snaps his red suspenders to "fix" things -- and flixes them in crazy ways. Cows stuck in mud end up flying through the sky raining milk. He sends the derailed mail train to Mars. But when all the snippy snappy goes out of the suspenders....and just as he's about to save Grandmammy from a flock of crows --- well --- you'll never guess what happens!

Yes, this is perfect for little 'uns - say 2 1/2 to 5ish...

Amelia Hits the Road - Marissa Moss

Grades 3-5

Pleasant Co. (American Girl) 1997

40 pgs.

Rating: 3.5

I've had Amelia books on my bookshelves in school for years, but have never read one cover to cover. They look really busy and overwhelming, but they're not hard to read at all. I wish I could keep a journal like Amelia - but you have to be able to draw. She (Amelia/Marissa Moss) makes it look so easy.

This is a series where Amelia ages, but she's only ten in this one, on a car trip with her mom and sister Cleo from Oregon to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley (with a stop afterwards at Manzanar) on the way to Yosemite, with the final destination being their old hometown in Barton, California...and her best friend, Nadia, who she hasn't seen in a year.

Cleo gets carsick a lot, and they hike down the Kaibab Tral at the Grand Canyon - full of mule poop. There's quite a bit about vomit and poop and a bratty-drive-you-crazy sister (is Cleo older or younger, I can't tell...), but it's also full of ten-year-old angst, great tourist sites, and all sorts of ephemera. She even meets a boy who makes chains of gum wrappers (great drawing) just like I used to!

I love the covers of these books - the marbelized black journals with stickers and maps and colorful drawings added.

Quick read - and a fun one. (And I love all her hand-drawn cactuses and license plates and the way she uses colored pencil circles and splashes of water color to accent certain words.)

Bubba the Cowboy Prince - Helen Ketteman

A Fractured Texas Tale
Illustrated by James Warhola
Scholastic, 1997
Rating: 4

Bubba lives with his wicked StepDaddy and his hateful stepbrothers Dwayne and Milton. One day Miz Lurleen, who was purty and rich and owned the biggest spread around, decided to throw a ball to find herself a feller that was "cute as a cow's ear."

You know the story. This one is cute and the illustrations are really cute. And who was his "fairy godmother?" Well, let's see: "Now, Bubba figured he'd bonked the bejeebers out of his bean, 'cause the voice was coming from a cow. She chewed her cud for a moment, then said, "I'm your fairy god cow, and I can help you go to the ball."

Yee ha!

The illustrations are full page, edge-to-edge and give a whimsical old west feel.

Note: The illustrations include a lot of saguaros. I've become quite sensitive to this, living in the Sonoran Desert which is the only place in the world where saguaros grow naturally. They are NOT native to Texas, and won't be found in the wild there.....

Rocks in His Head - Carol Otis Hurst

Illustrated by James Stevenson
Greenwillow/Harcourt
2001
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Creamy pink

"Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins or dolls or bottle caps. When he was a boy, my father collected rocks. When he wasn't doing chores at home or learning at school, he'd walk along stone walls and around old quarries, looking for rocks. People said he had rocks n his pockets and rocks in his head. He didn't mind. It was usually true."

This wonderfully told memoir includes a little history about the Depression, a little information about collecting, and the story of a man whose passion turns into a living - the true story of how a man with no college education - but a huge love of learning - can become a curator at a museum. Super.

The Surprise - Sylvia Van Ommen

Front Street/Boyds Mill Press

2007, originally Pub. in the Netherlands, 2003

28 p.

Rating: 4.5

Endpapers: Shelves of colored bottles (dyes)

A wordless delight - especially for a knitter. Sheep weighs himself (can't tell which gender, so I'll go with male), then hops on his moped and heads to the dye shop where he buys a bottle of red dye. At home he covers, rinses, dries, his wool, then shaves it all off. Hopping back on his moped he takes it to a fancy pink poodle who spins it into yarn. At home, he knits and knits and knits, then wraps. Again on his mjoped he zooms off to give a very long-necked sweater to his friend Giraffe, who rewards Sheep with a kiss on the cheek. Very sweet story. And a great one to write!

Illustrations are simple, very bright, and totally enjoyable.

Horace and Morris Say Cheese (which makes Dolores sneeze!) - James Howe

Illustrated by Amy Walrod

Ginee Seo Books (Atheneum) 2009

$16.99

Rating: 4

Endpapers: Dark aqua

The title of this book doesn't work. Dolores is getting shortchanged - this is her book, not Morris'! I'd have kids give it a better title. Kids frequently have a tough time coming up with an appropriate, catchy title - so this would make for a great writing lesson.

It's also full of alliteration, rhyme, dialogue boxes, a great story, and all-color pages. And the characters are all...mice.

Dolores loves loves loves cheese - any kind of cheese - but becomes very allergic to it. It's difficult to find replacements for cheese, and she keeps slipping back, which makes her break out in a horrible rash. She finally discovers that if she tries different combinations of cheeseless food, she's all set. Cute story written in a clever way. And kids will love the illustrations. I do.

"Horace and Morris but mostly Dolores loved to eat cheese. They ate string chees and Swiss chesse on Sundays. Thet ate Muenster with mustard on Mondays."

48. The Case of the Missing Marquess - Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes Mystery #1
Philomel Books, 2006
$10.99
216 pgs
Rating: 4
Grades 5-8

Enola Holmes is one cool 14 year-old. She lives with her elderly mother on an estate outside London. And one day, on Enola's 14th birthday, her mother disappears. Her two older brothers come from London to take over Enola's future. And one of those brothers is Sherlock Holmes. Their decision is to make a lady out of her, and to send her to boarding school. She knows this cannot let this happen.

Her mother has left her two books. One is a cipher book that she had created herself, the other a book of flowers. Enola discovers that her mother has left her messages in the ciphers. She has also left her lots and lots of hidden bank notes. But the biggest gift that she has given her is a great sense of independence. So on the day that she is to be transported to boarding school she hatches an ingenious plan, disguises herself, and sets off for the rest of her life. And that is NOT going to be boarding school! On the way she stumbles upon a mystery (an apparently kidnapped rich kid), which she solves with no problem. And at the end of the book, setting us for many books to follow, we find her becoming Ivy Meshle, secretary to the unseen Dr. Leslie T. Ragostin, a famous scientific perditorian. And what is a perditorian? In Enola's words, a "knower of the lost, wise woman of the lsot, finder of the lost."

There are lots of references to Victorian England that might be tough for some kids to understand. Creating a glossary for these references would be something cool to create while reading.

The writing is quite, quite nice, though some of it might be difficult for kids that have a tough time reading:

"My brothers lived here? In this -- this grotesque brick-and-stone parody of any world I had known? With so many chimney-pots and roof-peaks looming dark against a lurid, vaporous orange sky? Lead-coloured clouds hung low while the setting sun oozed molten light between them; the Gothic towers of the city stood festive yet foreboding against that glowering sky, like candles on the Devil's birthday cake. I stared until I grew aware of hordes of indifferent city-dwellers brushing pst me, going about their business. Then I took a deep abreath, closed my mouth, swallowed, and turned my back to this curiously ominous sunset."

The Snack Smasher - Andrea Perry

POETRY
Illustrated aby Alan Snow
Atheneum Bks for Young Readers
2007
Rating: 3
Endpapers: Front: Green watercolor wash with tractor
Back: Splashes of aqua and fuschia with footprints

A variety of "vile villains, ruthless roughnecks, scoundrels, scalawags and dastardly deed doers" are described in the 13 poems in this book including people like snack smashers, wicked waitresses, ink drinkers, and snake knotters. Here are a couple:

The Scary-Hair Fairy (MUST use this near SCHOOL PHOTO DAY)

‘Twas the night before pictures – those taken at school –
when kids want their hair to look stylish and cool.

The students were nestled in bed unaware
of what was about to become of their hair.

When up on the dresser top, who should appear,
but that messer of tresses photographers fear.

The Scary-Hair Fairy! That rascally knave!
That scoundrel whose magic makes hair misbehave.

More rapid than spritzing, he’ll straighten your curls.
He’ll give you six cowlicks and bangs all awhirl.

With a twist of his comb and mysterious gel,
you’re helplessly under his hair-raising spell.

He’ll tangle your ringlets. He’ll snarl and he’ll knot
and stiffen and crimp all your hair so it’s taut.

And then he’ll be off spreading split ends and frizz
to the next unsuspecting young Mister and Ms.

Yet as he’s departing, his warning is clear.
He snickers with such a cold scalawag sneer.

“Tomorrow will bring you the bleak prospect of
a school picture only a mother could love!”

Snorist

That sound you can hear?
At night in the dark?
That isn’t a sneeze, or a burp, or a bark?

It’s loud and alarming?
It keeps you awake?
And causes your bed and your dresser to shake?

That sound is the Snorist.
It means that he chose
to sneak with his tuba inside your dad’s nose.

He won’t ever leave
or stop making noise
since being annoying is what he enjoys.

He’s rude and uncouth,
a bothersome creep,
who wants to make sure no one gets any sleep.

He’ll play on for hours –
six, seven, or more –
each song getting louder and worse than before.

There might be a lull,
but don’t rest too soon…
the Snorist has merely switched to his bassoon!

Julio's Magic - Arthur Dorros

Illustrated by Ann Grifalconi
2005
Rating: 3.5

Julio lives in a village of woodcarvers, but his own family are farmers. His friend Iluminado lives in the hills and has taught Julio to carve and paint. He has also taught him how to find the perfect wood for carving from the copal tree.

Iluminato has never entered the annual carving contest, and although his carving is slower and his eyesight failing, his carvings are still superior. So, this very first time that he enters, he wins. Julio helps with the painting and starts his own menagerie of carvings to enter nest year.

The artwork is collaged and painted with cut out people and objects on a paintd background. Some look photo quality, perhaps altered? Interesting. Subtle.

Arthur Dorris has a website which includes more information behind the story.

The Dunderheads - Paul Fleischman

Illustrated by David Roberts
June, 2009
Rating: 2 (darn!)
Endpapers: illustration of the Dunderheads tacked up onto a blue wall

Big-bosomed Miss Breakbone is a a tyrannical teacher who despises her students -- who she calls "fiddling, twiddling, time-squandering, mind-wandering, doodling, dozing, don't-knowing, dunderheads!" She gives herself a gold star whenever she makes a student cry and confiscates all their stuff to sell.

Then one day the class has had it and decide to retaliate. Using the special, odd skills each of the dozen-or-so Dunderheads individually hold, they create a plan to break into her fortress-like house to get back their stuff.

Told in the first person by one of the Dunderheads, the kid's personalities are well portrayed, and once I (as a teacher and proud of it) got over the hugely negative attributes of Miss Breakbone, I decided she was a hoot.

Now, Paul Fleischman is my favorite author. I actually preordered this book. I'm sure the illustrations are wonderful, but the whole package just didn't work for me. I'm really disappointed - I don't know if it's in myself, the artwork, the story, or the negative portrayal of teachers in general, which is a hugely pet peeve of mine. I'll reread this in a week or two. See how I feel then. (sigh....)

Artful Reading - Bob Raczka

Millbrook Press, Minneapolis (Lerner)
2008
Rating: 5

Read by yourself. (Macke)
Read with each other. (Peale)
Read one good book. Then read another. (Van Gogh)
Read to discover what something means. (Degas)
Read to escape to a place you can dream. (Rossetti)
Read the news. (Cezanne)
Or read a globe. (Vermeer)
Read in a dress. (Fragonard)
Or read in your robe. (Durer)
Read while you wait for your train to come in. (Manet)
Read to find out how somebody's been. (Vermeer)
Read in a graden. (Cassatt)
Read in a house. (Messina)
Read by the window. (Matisse)
Read on the couch. (Renoir)
Read while you work. (Massys)
Read while you ride. (Hopper)
Read what you want. It's for you to decide. (Avery)
Read when you're young (Chardin)
Read when you're old. (Rembrandt)
Read all the words you can possibly hold. (Spitzweg)*
Read to friend, That's what friends are for. (Picasso)
Read all your life and you'll never be bored. (Lawrence)

Most of the page is filled with the art piece that illustrates that line - a few (Lawrence, Manet, Avery, Renoir) cover both pages - each double page is framed at the edge with a rufflly brown.

This is Raczka's eighth art book for young readers. It sure was a hit with me! What a great model to use in an artist's study, one artist, or several. A million ways to use in a classroom, and a great way to share rhyme and rhythm and great painters and painting to kids!

*Note: This Spitzweg painting is at the Milwaukee Public Library, sure to be and included destination in my next midwestern quilt shop hop.....